Wasting your time with things I find interesting, amusing, or enraging. Reinke does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations

INTERESTING: Why are certain topics appealing?

“Especially in the wake of Twilight, Harry Potter, or even the His Dark Materials series, I was wondering if you could tell me why concepts, like being an orphan or the existence of vampires or monsters, which should be frightening to children actually prove to be so appealing?”

With all the real problems in the world, why do folks have to go out and “invent” new ones?

Vampires and magic seem to be popular with the “yutes” of America. Are they brain dead? Have they been under served by what purports to be the “education system” here? Are they just mindless consumers of the “one eyed vast wasteland” (i.e., TV) in every room of our homes?

I really don’t understand.

When I was young, I dreamed of doing great things. Epic books were my “vast waste land”. With heros that overcome adversity and their own flaws.

Now, the kids adore what doesn’t exist.

Strange to my way of thinging.

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2 Responses to INTERESTING: Why are certain topics appealing?

I’ll stick to “brain dead”. :-) They appear to be listless and unmotivated to do ANYTHING. At least the ones that I see. (Maybe I need a better group of friends and relatives with children.) Maybe I was driven to earn money and buy stuff. Maybe today’s kids are given everything to the point of saturation. Maybe the one eyed monster (TV) has absorbed their brains. Their energy. Their desire. Seems like you need to poke ’em with astick to see if they are still alive. Mesmerized by TV and consumption. IMHO.

Ok, John as a parent I have some insight, but this of course is only my opinion or theory for which I only have my own experiences and studies to back up.

I think in your time (more so than mine); I was the transition generation, the world and even Kids had “REAL” fears. There was WW2, The Cold War, etc. This bred in children a desire for security and stability. Their mind wanted to live ina world were things had order over chaos.

With kids today (in spite of 9-11, and other real world terrors) our kids have that stability and really for the most part don’t have the same level of fear in their lives. They for the most part are much more sheltered emotionally from the world at large.

So I guess it boils down to this. In your world, you knew that you should be scared, so you sought out safety. In today’s world, children feel infinitely more ‘safe’ and as such must seek out adventure or fantasy to stimulate.

As to the Magic, there were always a subset of children and people who will always adore it. The concept of Magic or of superheroes or superpowers is slightly different from what was mentioned above in that I think everyone at some point wishes they had a way to control things around them.

I also think you can get into an oversimplification here. Some forms of fantasy have existed in every generation. Remember Frankenstein’s Monster, Dracula, and the mummy were all creations of authors many generations ago and the books were much sought after even in their time. I think calling the youth’s brain dead is a little heavy handed. Whether you agree with the different programs are not, many of the greatest scientist were once inspired by fantasy, whether it was 2000 Leagues under the Sea, Voyage to the Center of the Earth, or Isaac Asimov.